Enterprising teacher training business earns second royal award

A North East teacher training business has been awarded a prestigious royal accolade for the second time.

Sunderland-based Evidence Based Education (EBE) has received a King’s Award for Enterprise in the innovation category, marking a significant milestone in its journey to improve teacher development across the globe.

The award was established in 1966, to celebrate and encourage exceptional accomplishments in UK business across key areas such as innovation, international trade, sustainable development and promoting opportunity.

In recognition of its pioneering efforts, the King’s Award cited the business’s cutting-edge feedback tools and professional development resources, which it states are ‘helping improve education globally.’

EBE first won the award in 2019 and since then has almost doubling the size of its team and the company is now working with more than 40,000 teachers across the world, including contracts in the Middle East and South East Asia.

The award comes off the latest step in EBE’s development; the creation of pioneering feedback tools within the Great Teaching Toolkit, an end-to-end package of professional development to support teachers throughout their careers.

EBE also works with school staff to help them access robust feedback, high-quality training and resources, and to impact on teaching and learning in a way which is sustained and likely to lead to positive change in the classroom.

Chief executive officer of EBE Jack Deverson, MBE, said: “We’re honoured to win this award for a second time. It’s huge validation of the work we do and the hours we put in day in, day out.

“We’ve grown a great deal in the last five years, both as a business and in the tools we provide. The Great Teaching Toolkit takes the best of what we know about teacher development, and uses technology to provide ongoing, career-long support for teachers and schools. Ultimately, even greater teaching leads to better learning for students; this is our driving force as an organisation.

“Asking for feedback in any walk of life is quite daunting, and teaching is no different. We have worked with teachers in schools across the region to help develop and refine our tools, and we ensure any feedback is private to the teacher, which hopefully provides trust and reassurance.

“This model of professional development also allows teachers the time and autonomy to grow and improve their practice over the long term.”

The teacher development, school improvement and research organisation will now be working on its next project in collaboration with The National Institute of Teaching (NIOT), to research and evidence the impact of an individual teacher’s practice on student learning and outcomes, building on its teacher development work and ‘closing the feedback loop’.

EBE has been working with the business investment team at Sunderland City Council since they moved to the city in 2019, which has provided the company with the support required to accelerate its ambitious growth plans.

Councillor Kevin Johnston added: “I’m delighted to see Evidence Based Education awarded the King’s Award for Innovation. It’s great to see their drive and ambition as they grow further and we’re proud to have supported them on their journey.

“They’ve made a real difference in the region, improving education in our schools while creating jobs and we look forward to seeing where they go from here as they continue to develop and grow.”

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